2019's Top VPNs in Indonesia: Choose a Free or Paid Provider

ExpressVPN is the best choice for keeping your online travels undercover while visiting or living in Indonesia.

As if internet access in Indonesia is not censored enough, the government once again did something to control internet freedom in the country by implementing a new $14 Million Internet Censorship System.

This new high tech system is aimed at automatically blocking content such as pornographic materials and gambling websites. In the past couple of years, the government has constantly been keeping a watchful eye of unsuitable contents online and manually blocking said sites.

Having this new censoring system basically makes the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Ministry’s job a lot easier. While this is great news for the Indonesian government, it definitely is a cause for concern for its citizens’ right to internet freedom.

The Top 5 VPNs in Indonesia (In a Nutshell)

Internet Censorships that Bombard Indonesia

One of the worst places to be an internet user is in Indonesia. Just in 2017, the IT ministry had already blocked almost 800,000 websites – and a majority of which are composed of pornographic content.

And with the new system in place, the ministry had already blocked 70,000 more websites earlier this year. Although most blocked contents are definitely inappropriate for a Muslim country, this does leave users with concerns of internet monitoring and surveillance.

In 2017, Indonesia had 143 million recorded internet users. This is 18% of the country’s entire population.

And with tourism blooming in the country, more people are expected to access the internet on a daily basis. Tourists visiting the majestic beauty of Indonesia would be disappointed to learn that internet access in the country is highly restricted and monitored.

Internet censorship in Indonesia is a big problem there’s no doubt about that. Thankfully, using a VPN service is one trick to unblock the internet in Indonesia or any location across the globe.

Download a Virtual Private Network in Indonesia to Access a Free Web

When it comes to unblocking the internet altogether, nothing works better than a VPN service. Using such tool is the best solution there is to date.

There are literally hundreds of service providers out there. Some work well, while others just don’t live up to their promises.

Another thing to note is that not all VPNs are created the same. A VPN that works well in the US might not necessarily work the same in the UK.

So, getting the right service is extremely crucial in order to get the features you need to achieve online anonymity. For Indonesian internet users, there are certain free and paid VPN services that are designed to work best in your country.

But before going into the actual list of service providers, we would like to discuss the difference between a paid VPN with a free one.

Let’s dive into the facts!

Free vs Paid VPN: Which Should You Choose?

Everyone will agree that getting something for free is generally a good thing. Who would not like something for free, right?

However, free stuff do not usually provide the best experience. And that is often the case with free VPN services.

More often than not, using a free VPN does not really work in getting things done properly. Rather than helping users bypass restrictions, free services simply make it more frustrating to access the internet.

That is why most users would rather pay for a monthly subscription than to use a limited service that costs nothing at all.

A VPN service costs around $15 per month which isn’t that expensive considering the security features you are going to benefit from. A paid service usually comes with all the available features that the provider is said to be offering.

But – yes, there’s a big but. Not all paid VPNs works as advertised as well. So, you really need to do your due diligence before making a commitment to a virtual private network service.

This leaves us with the ultimate question, which is better, a free or paid service? There is no definite answer to this though.

There are actually some free VPNs that even works better than most premium services. And there are paid ones that give the best solution for internet security and freedom.

Here are our top picks for the best paid and free VPN services that Indonesian users can use.

The #1 Service

1. ExpressVPN is the best paid service in Indonesia

We just can’t get enough of ExpressVPN. This service provider basically makes it to almost all our list and for the right reasons – it is that great!

ExpressVPN is a service provider that is based in the British Virgin Islands. Being headquartered in the said area is a good thing for technology companies such as Express. There are currently no data retention laws in the BVI so that’s one reason to like Express more.

Express has more than 2,000 servers in 94 countries as of this writing. Among its server locations is Indonesia. So if you are looking to hide your internet activities with an Indonesian IP address, ExpressVPN is an excellent choice.

In order for internet users to take advantage of Express’ security features, they need to subscribe to a VPN plan. At the moment, there are three main plans to choose from.

The monthly plan costs about $13.00 which is less than the average VPN price. Users may also opt for the bulk monthly plans to avail of great discounts.

A six month worth of ExpressVPN plan costs $60.00 – that’s $10.00 per month. Or if you want to get more savings, you’ll need to sign up for the annual plan costing around $100.00 – giving you a massive 35% in savings!

Express supports major protocols including OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec, IPSec, IKEv2, PPTP, and SSTP. If you are connecting to the Indonesia VPN server though, you won’t be able to make use of the L2TP/IPSec, SSTP, and PPTP protocols.

Here is a summary of why we think Express is the best paid VPN service to use in Indonesia:

Getting the Most Out of a Free VPN Service

Finding a provider that offers a completely free service (yes, not just a free trial) can be a bit of a challenge. As mentioned earlier, free VPNs are either crappy or solid gold.

After testing out several VPNs, we finally found a service that works best in Indonesia. It’s called Tunnel Bear.

1. TunnelBear

This Canadian VPN company offers a simple solution to unblocking the internet. Tunnel Bear prides itself as a company that brings online security to everyone all over the world.

We love the simplicity and elegance of its client app which works on Apple, Android, Mac, and Windows devices.

Tunnel Bear offers a completely free VPN service to anyone who’s looking to bypass geographic restrictions. Unfortunately, users will only get a 500MB data limit per month.

While this bandwidth allocation may not seem enough for daily use, this is actually sufficient data for users who only surf the web from time to time. And if you want to data, tweet out Tunnel Bear and they’ll give you 1GB more!